Video Transcription
Adriaan Van Donk 00:03
I'm Adriaan Van Donk. Good afternoon. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Corbotics. I have a background in IT services, a company which I started in 2000 and sold in 2018, and I joined Corbotics just after the first prototype was developed. I'm really thrilled to present the first echo robot in the world to perform transesophageal examinations of the heart, fully autonomously. Trans thoracic examinations, abbreviated as TTEs, also known simply as heart echos, are the most commonly used imaging method for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases. It's simply done by the manual work of a professional sonographer, who moves the ultrasound probe over the chest of the patient. At the same time, they are setting and updating the settings of the ultrasound machine to optimize the quality of the images. You need TTEs to initially detect cardiovascular diseases, but you also need a lot of them to repeat and to monitor the status of the illness, as well as the effectiveness of the treatment. There's a huge problem in sonography for hearts. There's a big shortage, and it's growing. In the period from 2011 to 2021, there was a study showing that there was an average growth rate of 14% in the number of TTEs in the US, and that is very likely to continue this trend after COVID picked up. This is due to the obvious reasons: the growing population, the aging population, and also the increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). On the supply side, there is a significant shortage of staff, which is growing very rapidly. We estimate there are 14,000 open vacancies only in sonography in the US by the end of this year, which is huge. Also, if you look at the dropout rates of sonographers, it's quite substantial. This is due to the repetitive strain injuries that come with the profession, and altogether this results in obvious problems like increased waiting times for diagnosis, unmet needs, and increasing costs per TTE. So what we are doing is very revolutionary. We are introducing the world's first echo robot, and it's meant for outpatient, planable exams. We are focusing on image acquisition only, so we're not doing the automated diagnostics. There are other solutions on the market, but together we create a very, let's say, challenging and also beautiful, end-to-end solution for future customers. Our technology is patented both in Europe and in the US, and let me just show you a short video of our robot Echo in action.
Adriaan Van Donk 04:01
The Corbotics Echo robot can make fully autonomous cardiac ultrasound exams using an echo probe mounted on a robot arm. During an exam, ultrasound data is gathered and processed using novel AI techniques. This results in movement instructions for the robot arm. The operator can control the system using a touchscreen interface. The patient can also see the exam's progress on a separate screen. The patient lies down on the bed in prone and lateral positions, giving the robot access to the chest.
Adriaan Van Donk 04:55
So what you just saw was our robot Echo in action. It takes a few minutes just to prepare the patient in a manual way that can be done by a low-educated assistant or nurse. It doesn't need any sonographer anymore, and once the preparation phase has been done, our machine takes control and fully autonomously collects all the images needed for a TTE, which is about 40 clips of different angles of the heart. So it's quite challenging. Besides integrating the hardware components in our machine, which will be done by a contracted manufacturer, we are, above all, a software company. We have an easy-to-use user interface. We create the AI and machine learning algorithms to find the right spots and also to optimize the image quality. We also integrate with the external systems of our future clients, making sure that the current workflows remain exactly as they are for the clinicians among us. We collect parasternal and subcostal views in the prone position of the patient and the apical views in left lateral positions. We are optimizing all the modes of the ultrasound machine, and currently, we are starting the clinical trials with participants with a BMI equal to or less than 35. This is a calculation of a return on investment for a future client, assuming that client will have three of our robot Echoes running in parallel, and it only needs to be operated by one full-time assistant. This will provide around a 400% gain in capacity and a 40% cost reduction per examination. So we are currently integrating with a challenger probe system, which is good for addressing the first line of care, such as diagnostic centers making screening echos. But later on, we will also integrate with high-end vendors like GE and Philips. We're talking right now to them and exploring our business relationships. Of course, they are very promising because together we can accelerate, as we are addressing the same markets and the same customers. What we will sell are the BBE units, but we can also offer a pay-as-you-serve, pay-as-you-go service. We will have a recurring support and maintenance fee, and we will also resell the ultrasound machine. Given the variety of pricing, of course, we cannot price that in a standard way. Currently, there are no competitors providing similar solutions like we do, so we're out there alone, and we've protected our inventions with patents. We have a launching customer, a strategic investor called Digital Centers, or DC Clinic, and they will roll out 14 of our first machines. They have already pre-ordered our machines for their operations. We have clinical centers where we just started our first clinical study.
Adriaan Van Donk 08:43
So a little bit about the projected sales. The first year is already covered by the strategic investor. We did a very straightforward calculation of the install base of ultrasound machines out there, assuming just a replacement ratio. This, together with a market share, gives you the numbers. We took very safe assumptions here, and these numbers are only based on the European rollout; we have to add the American market as well, which is, of course, the biggest market by far. So where are we? We just started the clinical trials, and we would like to have regulatory approval, both in the EU and in the US, by mid-2026. We have three and a half million, of which 2 million is still in cash. With the given runway and ambitions, we have a runway until the end of 2025. So what we're asking now is 8 million to fuel the commercialization, but also to start working on integrating with other ultrasound vendors. Thank you.
